In January 2008, in a podcast interview with Stuck in the 80s, Night Ranger’s Jack Blades said the band's latest album -- Hole in the Sun -- would be released in April 2008 and would be supported by a national tour - what he failed to mention was it would unfortunately miss the mark.
Granted, by industry standards Night Ranger has never been the Shakespeare of rock and roll, but no one can fault that twenty plus years ago they were adept at formulaic MTV pop rock that was neither threatening to young impressionable minds or the music industry 16 million records later. The question for Night Ranger is if you are stuck in the eighties, and playing the state fair and summer festival circuit, how do you set yourself free of the battleship chains of hair mouse, cropped leather jackets and Sister Christian? Typically you reinvent by honing in on what made you famous in the first place….and giving it just enough of a fresher edge to make the diehard fans comfortable and the new ones willing to listen to you.
However, “Hole in the Sun” is a gargantuan black hole where good music can‘t be found.
Blades’ voice is almost unrecognizable and the tracks veer off course to the point that the listener is lost from the get go. It’s clear that Night Ranger was trying to produce something unique but instead produced something all too common.
Bad rock and roll.
